The Complete Guide to Selling your Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash

[See update in this post.]

Did you get a gift card to a retailer where you don’t shop? Want to turn it into cash?

Here’s the Complete Guide to Selling Unwanted Gift Cards For Cash.

Introduction

There are two venues of selling unwanted gift cards:

  • You can sell them to a gift card reseller. There are numerous gift card resellers and it’s hard to keep track of who is offering the best rate. In this article, we’ll review the larger gift card resellers: CardPoolABC Gift Cards/Card CashSaveya, and Gift Card Zen.
  • Sell it yourself on eBay or Raise.com or Saveya. Certainly you’re all familiar with eBay, and you may know that – along with millions of other things – eBay allows us to sell gift cards on their site. Raise is marketplace exclusively for selling gift cards. Saveya has a marketplace where you can sell gift cards at your own price.

We’ll discuss both options in this article.

Basics

Here’s the basic idea of selling a gift card: You received a gift card to a merchant that you won’t be able to use. Let’s say you received a $25 Staples gift card, and you don’t have anything to buy at Staples. Fill out a form on the gift card reseller’s website, indicating that you want to sell them a $25 Staples gift card. They’ll give you a quote of how much they’re willing to pay you for it. You’ll accept the offer and confirm the order. You’ll mail the gift card to the reseller. They’ll send you a check.

The main thing to consider when selling the gift card is how you can get the highest payment for it. Refer to a gift card aggregation site for all the current prices of how much you can get with each reseller. They do a good job of clearly showing the options and the best quote available.

If you’re considering selling it yourself on eBay or Raise, you’ll have to calculate the fees that they’ll charge and see which option is best. We’ll detail what those fees are in this article.

Expiration Date

Only gift cards that don’t have an expiration date can be sold. Cards with an expiration and any other promotional-type cards can only be sold on eBay, not through any of the other venues.

E-gift cards 

The ability to sell gift cards electronically makes it possible to sell e-gift cards, and it makes it more convenient when selling physical gift cards by submitting the gift code electronically. All of the major exchanges accept electronic submission of most gift cards; however, certain cards may require physical submission. Typically, gas gift cards and a few others will need the physical cards sent in. Also, eBay does not allow the sale of e-gift cards.

Build Trust 

If you’re new to selling gift cards to resellers, realize that there’s a trust-building element here. It’s usually better not to start off sending in thousands of dollars to a reseller you’ve never dealt with before, if avoidable. Try increasing volume up over time; first send small amounts and then ramping up, as you get comfortable with them and they get comfortable with you.

Other Pointers

  • Merchandise credits are usually accepted the same as traditional gift cards.
  • Gift cards don’t need to be an even-denomination to be sold. For example, you can sell a gift card or a merchandise credit with a balance of $26.39 on it.
  • The gift card could be partially used. For example, if you got a gift card with $50 on it and you used $11, you can sell the $39 gift card balance that remains.

Comparing Prices

Which gift card exchange will fetch you the best price? What price is each reseller offering?

The best way to find out the various rates is to use a gift card aggregation site. These sites show all available rates at a glance so you don’t have to go to each exchange and see the rate. They’ll often show if you can submit the gift card electronically and expected payouts for sales on Raise or eBay.

Here are a few aggregation sites we are aware of: GiftCardGranny.comGiftcardwiki.com, and Giftcardplace.com. If you do a lot of gift card selling, check them out and see which one you find the best.

Other Considerations

Some other things to consider when deciding to sell your gift card:

  • How will you get paid? All resellers offer check payment. Some may offer Direct Deposit and Paypal options.
  • Which shipping service should you use to send in gift cards?
  • How should you package the gift cards when shipping them?
  • Can I trust the resellers that they’ll pay me for my gift card?
  • What advantages are there for bulk sellers?

We’ll discuss all these things and more in this article, and we’ll discuss bulk sellers here as well.

Can I Trust Them?

Should you have faith that the gift card resellers will pay you? Maybe they’ll take the gift card and run?

I’ve dealt with most of the above gift card exchanges, and they do seem trustworthy overall. There is, however, an element of risk that the company may go under or that they’ll lose your card in processing. In general, it’s relatively secure when dealing with established resellers. We only list the bigger exchanges in this post.

We’ll discuss how to sell gift cards safely on eBay so that you won’t be scammed by an unscrupulous buyer.

Resellers: Pros and Cons

Let’s take a look at these gift card resellers one-by-one and see the advantages and disadvantages of each reseller. Of course, the most significant consideration is the reseller that’s offering the highest payout on the gift card that you’re looking to sell. But we’re going to take a look at other factors, and see what each reseller has to offer.

Important Note: We tried to give a complete picture of what each reseller has to offer. Most of the advantages and disadvantages mentioned below are things that will only matter to some people, some of the time. Read through the details of each one to see if it’s an advantage for you or a disadvantage for you.

CardPool

Update 12/31/19: I would not recommend using Cardpool anymore.

CardPool is located in California, and that’s where you’ll be sending the gift cards. Payment is by check only.

Things you may like…

  • Cardpool provides a free shipping label to send in the cards. Just print it out and tape it on the envelope.
  • Stable and reliable company.
  • Cardpool accepts electronic submissions of many gift cards.
  • Besides the standard payout options, Cardpool offers an option of getting paid in the form of an Amazon gift card. The payout is 6% higher when taking the Amazon gift card in place of cash.

Things you may not like…

  • While they do accept electronic submissions of many gift cards, they reduce the payout amount by 5% for gift cards submitted electronically. For example, if you sell them $100 Target gift card, they may offer you $90 for physical submission of the card, and $85 for an electronic submission.
  • Cardpool only accepts gift cards with a minimum value of $25.
  • While they have a vast number of retailer cards they deal with, there are some retailer gift cards that they won’t buy.
  • Cardpool will often call you after they receive the gift cards to verify where you got the cards, why you decided to sell them, etc. Presumably, the calls are more likely on higher-dollar sales. (The call is no big deal, just a few minutes of time.)

Thoughts: Cardpool is a reliable company as it’s part of the Blackhawk Network, a publicly traded company. A downside of Cardpool is that they only offer payment by check and some of the others may provide electronic payments. If you’re okay with a check, Cardpool is an excellent choice to consider. They also provide a free shipping label, which saves you the cost of a stamp; no other reseller offers that.

Card Cash/ABC Gift Cards

We’re lumping CardCash and ABC Gift Cards together since they’re one company. They’re located in New Jersey, and that’s where you’ll be mailing the gift cards.

Things you may like…

  • CardCash offers excellent payout options. You can choose to be paid by check, direct deposit, or Paypal. You’ll get the full payout amount even when getting paid via Paypal – they cover the Paypal fees.
  • CardCash accepts gift cards of any denomination, no minimum.
  • CardCash allows a large variety of retailer’s gift cards that they’ll buy from you.
  • CardCash accepts electronic submissions of many gift cards with no reduction in payout.

Things you may not like…

  • Require a credit card on file for e-gift card sales.

Thoughts: Cardcash/ABC arguably has the most wide-ranging palatability for non-bulk sellers: they don’t have the limits of Saveya and Giftcardzen, they accept the widest variety of cards cards, they payout electronically and allow electronic submission, and they usually offer competitive rates.

Bear in mind that Cardcash and ABC don’t always offer the same rate (ABC is often the one that’s higher) so check out both before submitting an order.

Saveya

Saveya.com is a branch of Giftcards.com which sells new and used gift cards. The Saveya branch deals exclusively with buying and selling second-hand gift cards.

[READGiftcards.com Branches Off to Saveya.com]

Things you may like…

  • They offer check or Paypal payment. You’ll need to cover the Paypal fees.
  • Saveya accepts electronic submission of most gift cards with no reduction in payout. They’re the only one’s that offer this.
  • They often have the highest payout rates.
  • Saveya offers an additional 2% cashback on the sale gift cards by going through the Topcashback or Simplybestcoupons shopping portals.

Things you may not like…

  • You are limited to selling no more than $500 per week to Saveya.
  • Saveya only accepts gift cards with a minimum value of $20.
  • Must enter a credit card number at time-of-sale for electronically submitted gift codes.

Thoughts: Saveya is a solid option with the advantage of electronic submission and often good payout rates. There is the $300-per-week velocity limit, though.

Gift Card Zen

Gift Card Zen is located in Arizona, and that’s where you’ll be sending the gift cards. Payment is by check or Paypal.

Things you may like…

  • Giftcardzen allows us to submit many gift cards electronically, without the need to mail them in.
  • Giftcardzen offers a Paypal payment option with no additional fees.

Things you may not like…

  • Minimum $15 value on the card to be able to sell it.
  • They require a credit card on file for all gift card sales.
  • Slow payment; payment is sent after 10 business days.
  • Giftcardzen doesn’t accept too many gift card brands.
  • Seems to be a $2,000 limit per week.

Thoughts: Gift Card Zen is known to have excellent customer service and to be very user-friendly. They keep you updated via email when they receive the cards, when they send out the check, etc. It’s great that they don’t deduct payout for electronically submitted cards. Giftcardzen is now owned by the Retailmenot corporation which gives an added comfort level is selling there.

Raise

Raise.com is a marketplace to sell gift cards. Unlike all the gift card resellers mentioned above, you’re not selling the gift card to Raise – you’re selling the gift card on Raise. The sale does not take place until a buyer comes along and buys the gift card.

Raise deals primarily in electronically submitted gift cards. You enter the gift code, and you set a price. For example, if you have $100 Target gift card, you may set a price of $95. After confirming the listing, it goes live, and it remains up for sale until someone comes and buys it. You can change the price at any time. You can also remove the gift card at any time if you decide you don’t want to sell it.

Raise charges 15% of the selling price. For example, if you sell $100 gift card for $90, they’ll take $13.50 (90 x .15) and you’ll receive a payout of $76.50. (Physical gift card sales cost the same but have an added surcharge of $1 or 1%, whichever is greater.)

Things you may like…

  • Gift cards are typically submitted electronically.
  • Great user experience. Clear and straightforward system.
  • Payment can be by check or Paypal or direct deposit.ca
  • You have the ability to set the price.

Things you may not like…

  • Since Raise charges a 15% fee, it’s sometimes not the best option for your bottom line – particularly with gift cards from top-dollar retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Nordstrom – since you may be able to get a higher payout by selling the gift card to a reseller.
  • It’s not sold until a buyer comes along and buys it, versus selling to one of the exchanges mentioned where the sale takes place immediately.
  • Electronically submitted gift cards need a minimum value of $5. Gift cards sent in physically need a $10 minimum.

Thoughts: The Raise system is great and very user-friendly. It’s very convenient to be able to submit the gift codes electronically, and they offer direct deposit payment, making the whole process electronic. Since selling on Raise has a different structure than selling to a gift card reseller, it’s harder to calculate when it’s more profitable to sell on Raise or when it’s more profitable to sell to a reseller.

Raise can be particularly worthwhile for electronic gift cards since they don’t deduct payout for electronic submission the way some resellers do. Still, selling to a reseller is simpler than selling on Raise since you don’t need to worry about whether or not the card will sell; once you confirm the sale, the deal is done.

eBay

Along with millions of other items, eBay allows people to sell gift cards. Like all other items on eBay, you can sell a gift card for a fixed price – “Buy It Now” – or you can put it up for auction. When you put an item up for auction on eBay, you can set a minimum price that the auction starts at, so you don’t risk ending up with pennies.

The cost of selling on eBay is around 13% total: eBay generally charges 10%, and Paypal usually charges 2.9% plus 30¢. There’s also the shipping fees that can be around $3 – see Shipping Tips below.

Important: While eBay doesn’t require sellers to ship items with tracking info – technically, you could just send it in the mail with a regular 49¢ stamp – you should never ship a gift card sold on eBay without tracking. According to eBay rules, they’ll only stand behind the seller if they have tracking information to prove that it was shipped.

I had an experience where I sold a gift card on eBay, and the buyer disputed the charge. At first, Paypal pulled the money out of my account, but after verifying the tracking information, they eventually credited the money back to my Paypal account. My impression was that they never actually got the money on the sale, but they took the loss since I followed the rules of shipping with tracking.

There is risk selling gift cards on eBay, however, even if you follow the rules. If the buyer does a chargeback, eBay might not stand behind you, and you’ll end up suffering a loss. See Paypal Buyer & Seller Protection on Gift Cards for more info.

eBay has some special rules for gift card listings:

  • You can’t have more than one gift card listing up for sale at any given time.
  • Only physical gift cards can be sold.
  • The gift card must be in your hand at the time you list it for sale.
  • Gift cards with a value of more than $500 can not be sold.
  • You can’t sell prepaid cards from Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover.

Things you may like…

  • Any physical card or code can be sold, including those that have an expiration date, and including other types of promotional discount cards.
  • No restriction on which gift cards you can sell; all other sites have specific cards they deal with and some that they won’t buy. (The only exception is Visa/Mastercard/Amex gift cards which can not be sold on eBay.)
  • Payment via Paypal.
  • You have the ability to set the price.

Things you may not like…

  • As we mentioned, eBay has a few restrictions – one gift card at a time, no e-gift cards, and nothing higher than $500.
  • After accounting for the fees and shipping costs, eBay may not be the best option for your bottom line, since you may be able to get higher payment by selling the gift card to a reseller.
  • You have to ship the physical gift card to the buyer.
  • It’s not sold until a buyer comes along and buys it, versus selling to a reseller where the sale takes place immediately.

My Thoughts: I honestly don’t see why anyone would bother selling a gift card on eBay, unless it’s a gift card that no resellers are buying. Under most scenarios, you won’t end up making more on the sale after accounting for the eBay/Paypal fees and the shipping costs. Even if you think you’ll make slightly more, it wouldn’t be worthwhile for someone who isn’t experienced with selling on eBay. I’ve sold a bunch of gift cards on eBay, but I haven’t done any eBay sales recently.

Occasionally, there may be a seller promotion offering no fees, or a similar type of seller offer, and selling on eBay could be a good idea.

Saveya

In addition to the option of selling to Saveya directly, they also offer a Marketplace option where you can sell gift cards at your own price, similar to the Raise marketplace mentioned above. When using this option, the sale does not take place until a buyer comes along and buys the gift card.

Not all gift cards can be sold on the Saveya Marketplace – some are can only be sold to Saveya directly.  Gift cards that are eligible for electronic submission can be sold with the Marketplace option, while gift cards (like gas and some others) that need physical submission can’t be sold on the Marketplace.

Saveya charges 14% of the selling price on most cards. For example, if you sell $125 gift card for $100, they’ll take 14%, and you’ll receive $86. Some top selling cards have a lower commission fee.

See the post Saveya Adds Marketplace Selling Option for more details and comparison between Saveya and Raise.

Recap

Let’s recap the important details:

Electronic Submission: Saveya, Giftcardzen, and Raise accept electronic submission for most cards. Cardpool and CardCash accept electronic submission, but they deduct 5% from the payout amount. eBay does not allow the sale of e-gift cards.

Shipping Fees: Cardpool is the only one that offers a shipping label for savings of 49¢. (Raise also provides a shipping label on physical gift card sales, but they do charge an extra dollar on top of the regular commission.)

Electronic Payment: CardCash and Raise offer a direct deposit option. CardCash is the only one who offers a free Paypal payment option. Saveya and Raise also offer Paypal payments, but you cover the fees. Cardpool and Giftcardzen pay via check only.

Shopping Portal: Raise pays $1.50 per gift card, by going through the TopCashBack shopping portal. Saveya offers 2% back on all sales via the Topcashback and Simplybestcoupons portals. Cardpool offers 4% cashback on your first $1,000 in sales and purchases combined via the Giving Assistant shopping portal. [Note that this may not track well in the portal.]

Minimum Value: CardCash accepts any gift card with no minimum value. On eBay, you can sell a gift card with no minimum value. Gift Card Zen and Raise require a minimum of $1. Saveya requires a minimum of $20. Cardpool requires a minimum of $25.

Maximum Value: Most resellers don’t have a maximum value. On eBay, you can’t sell a gift card with a value of more than $500. Saveya accept a maximum card value of $300. Giftcardzen accepts a maximum gift card value of $600.

Sales Volume Limit: Saveya limits us to $300 per week and Giftcardzen limits us to $600 per week. The other exchanges don’t have volume limits. eBay has a rule that just one gift card can be listed at a time.

Best Payout: This varies by the card; see a gift card aggregation site for all the options. Saveya often has a slightly higher rate than the others.

Best Acceptance: Gift Card Zen and CardCash have the widest variety of gift cards that they’ll accept.

Trading Gift Cards

Often, people are interested in trading an unwanted gift card for another, more desired brand. For example, if you’re a big Amazon shopper, you may want to swap the Starbucks gift card you got as a present for an Amazon gift card. There are numerous options for doing so.

Please read the post List of Options to Exchange an Unwanted Gift Card for Another for all the options; here are some of them, in brief.

  • Cardpool offers the ability to get paid with an Amazon gift card instead of cash using their traditional selling system. Just select the Amazon gift card payment and receive a 6% bonus.
  • Cardcash allows swapping many gift cards for an eBay e-gift card, an Amazon e-gift card, a Hotels.com e-gift card, a CVS e-gift card, or a Dell e-gift card.
  • Gamestop has a partnership with Cardpool to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for a Gamestop gift card.
  • In Target stores, they offer a gift card exchange service at a dedicated kiosk.

Shipping Tips

  • If you’re selling a low-value gift card, you may choose to put the gift card in a regular envelope and ship it with an ordinary postage stamp. We recommend taping the gift card to an index card or a piece of paper and writing your name and address on it. There is a small risk that when there are objects in an envelope, it can break open; the name/address will help the USPS locate you.
  • If you’re selling a bunch of gift cards or a gift card with a high value, it makes sense to ship it as a package with tracking. The most cost-efficient way to do this is to ship USPS First Class Package. For packages 3 ounces or less, the cost is $2.45. Print out the postage with your Paypal account at paypal.com/shipnow. When buying postage online, you get free tracking which helps mitigate the nervousness of not knowing where your package is and if it got delivered.
  • Shipping the gift cards in a bubble envelope is the best option. It’s secure and doesn’t weigh much.
  • As a rule of thumb, you can assume 3 gift cards per ounce, including a little extra for packaging weight. Of course, if you use heavy packaging this won’t be the case, but if you use a bubble wrap or a similar light packaging, you can assume 3 gift cards per ounce. Since 3 ounces or less costs $1.89 when sending USPS First Class Package, you can safely assume that 9 gift cards will ship fine with the cheapest $1.89 postage. If you’re sending 19 cards, figure 6.3 ounces (19 x .33) – round it up and pay for 7 ounces (around $3). Some gift cards are heavier than others, but if you don’t have a scale you can use this is a rule-of-thumb. I’ve used it tens of times and I never had a problem.
  • With a regular 49¢ postage stamp, you’re allowed up to 1 ounce. Three gift cards should probably be okay with a single postage stamp.
  • Cardpool’s postage label works for 2 ounces of postage, and six gift cards should ship okay. Package them well in case it breaks open during shipment, as mentioned.
  • You can pay a couple of extra dollars for signature confirmation if you are sending a high-dollar shipment and you want some extra piece of mind.
  • We recommend taking a picture or photocopy of all the gift cards. If something goes wrong in the shipment, you’ll still have the gift codes. Additionally, you’ll have proof that the gift cards are yours, and you’ll be able to contact the retailer to ask for a replacement.
  • I don’t think it’s worthwhile to pay for insurance; you should be okay with the photocopy/picture. Additionally, insurance won’t cover things like gift cards so you won’t be gaining from it. If the shipment gets lost in the mail, in most cases you’ll be able to get a replacement gift card from the retailer. Be sure to keep any receipt or documentation you may have until you get payment from the reseller. If something gets lost in the mail, a receipt will help you get a replacement gift card easier.
  • If you’re sending a bunch of gift cards, rubber-band them together and stick a paper inside with a printout of the order email or with your name, address and order number.

Bulk Seller

All gift card resellers have special programs for bulk sellers. All will pay with direct deposit for bulk sellers. And they’ll give more personal attention to bulk sellers. Bulk seller can also try to negotiate better rates.

Here are a few additional details:

Cardpool: Electronically submitted gift cards will get higher payouts for bulk sellers than for non-bulk sellers. They also give you an advance warning before lowering rates.

Gift Card Zen: They have a robust system for uploading gift cards, which is useful if you’re doing real volume. They give bulk sellers advance warning before lowering rates. You need to do real volume to become a bulk seller on Giftcardzen, and it won’t apply to most of us; see this post for more info.

Saveya: Bulk sellers don’t have the limits that non-bulk sellers have regarding the quantity they can sell. Shipping label provided for bulk sellers. If you do real high volumes of bulk selling, they offer better rates.

Raise: Offers much better rates for bulk sellers. Standard commission rates vary from 8% on top sellers to a 13% max. They have a robust system for uploading gift cards, which is useful if you’re doing real volume. They give each bulk seller a personal account manager to help them along. There are  a few (very few) gift cards which can only be sold by bulk sellers. Minimum of around $2500 per month in sales to be a bulk seller.

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Veronica
Veronica (@guest_971261)
May 4, 2020 08:48

It’s Major Micro Financial Bank, they trade all electronic gift cards to Bitcoin and they need more than $25,000 daily. So they giving out basically free money and using it as a tax write off before tax seasons to be eligible for certain tax breaks as a Fortune 500 company. They don’t really lose because they get most of the money back during tax time by writing it off as “charity expense ”They doing this to help people, and have those same people help promote the brand while getting paid to do it.

I need no this real thing company’s do or not real!

Alvin Care
Alvin Care (@guest_863252)
December 31, 2019 13:14

was having good transaction with cardpools until my last selling for ebay gcs, 3 gcs was sold only 2 received payment sent support emails and trying to contact them with no response from them at all stay away from them for now !!!

Kristi honey
Kristi honey (@guest_843897)
November 16, 2019 15:44

Can anyone tell me where you can trade a gift card with no credit card in case the card isn’t good…I tried paypal card and green dot…

Jay
Jay (@guest_590261)
May 3, 2018 22:33

Criticized you in my last post (re: recent password protected ‘deal’)

Got to say though, that this how-to guide was enormly helpful as an overview into this topic – so thanks…

Justin
Justin (@guest_457161)
August 11, 2017 14:04

Any input on Gift Card Spread? They are selling Hyatt at 17.8% off which mixes well with a points+cash

Harv
Harv (@guest_352334)
February 12, 2017 14:45

ABC Gift cards required a credit card to cover my sale of egiftcards to them.

Ken
Ken (@guest_352335)
February 12, 2017 14:46

Most places that buy GCs do this.

chinagel
chinagel (@guest_342935)
January 23, 2017 20:17

does cardpool offer instant payout to bulk sellers or they only pay after the GC are sold?

Nick
Nick (@guest_342787)
January 23, 2017 14:11

Gift Card Zen is now paying out through PayPal (even for electronic sales!). Pretty cool.

Ken
Ken (@guest_342797)
January 23, 2017 14:30

Is there an additional PP fee for payouts via PP?

Nick
Nick (@guest_342799)
January 23, 2017 14:34

I did not even see an option to choose check payout, but the amount paid out is the same as when I sold gift cards for a check last week. So my guess is no.

Ken
Ken (@guest_342802)
January 23, 2017 14:43

Good deal, thanks.

Evan
Evan (@guest_330647)
December 23, 2016 13:17

Hey Chuck. I printed a USPS label with PP to send a couple of giftcards to ABC. I paid $2.60 for 3 oz (first class package), which supposedly includes tracking, but it’s been 4 days now and tracking shows me nothing. What gives?

tzvi s
tzvi s (@guest_317690)
November 21, 2016 16:09

hey does anybody body know what is with dunkin donuts Gift cards and abc, 1st I tried to sell a 100 Gift card online and got an email from them about high risk and then I tried a 15 Gift card and got the same email?